Ever been on social media, or reading an article when an acronym crosses your path that you don't know?
Frustrating isn't it?
And the problem is that new acronyms and internet slang are coming up all the time. Using them is almost a rite of passage for active and successful social media users.
As social media professionals it can be downright embarrassing when we come across a few letters that obviously are packed full of meaning but the meaning eludes us.
You might be thinking, “who cares?” or “acronyms are not that important” and that is exactly what I once thought.
I remember early in my career I was a bit late to the ICYMI game (if you don't know what it means you NEED to keep reading, trust me). I saw it popping up everywhere and at some point my boss asked me what it meant…
Scheisse… as the Germans say!
I did not have an answer for him. It didn't cost me my job, but if you are going to be involved in the social media marketing of your business, you need to stay up to date with the vernacular, especially when it comes to professional lingo.
Acronyms also have a practical benefit. They save characters when you are trying to message on Twitter or even just trying to keep your communications short and snappy.
To get you started I have compiled a comprehensive list of the social media and marketing acronyms that you absolutely HAVE to be familiar with if you are going to go anywhere in the digital world.
But the rest of the work is up to you, new acronyms pop-up regularly and you need to make sure you understand them and use them to remain relevant online.
Marketing Acronyms
In the world of marketing there are many important acronyms that you cannot live without. They are in memos, e-mails, articles, business plans and budgets, but what are they and what do they mean?
AIDA: Attention Interest Desire Action
Also known as the “Purchase Funnel”, it describes the events that occur when a consumer engages with an advertisement.
API: Application Program Interface
Set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications. APIs specify how software components should interact with each other.
ASP: Application Service Provider
Refers to a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network.
B2B: Business to Business
Where one business makes a commercial transaction with another.
B2C: Business to Consumer
Where a business makes a commercial transaction with a consumer.
BR – Bounce Rate
Percentage of visitors to a website who navigate away from the website after viewing only one page.
CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost
The cost associated with convincing a customer to buy a product or service. Costs could include research, marketing and accessibility.
CMS: Content Management System
A computer application that allows publishing, editing and organizing content from a central interface.
CPA – Cost per Action
An online advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays for each specified action (ie: impression, click or sale).
CPC – Cost per Click
An online advertising model where the advertiser pays the publisher a pre-set amount whenever the ad is clicked. (also known as Pay per click PPC)
CPM: Cost per Thousand
The cost to reach one thousand people via a specific advertising outlet or medium.
CR – Conversion Rate
Percentage of users who take a desired action (ie: buy something on the website).
CTR – Clickthrough Rate
The ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email or advertisement.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management
Refers to an approach to managing a company's interaction with its customers (current and future) by analyzing the data about a customers' history with a company.
CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
A system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers.
CSS: Cascading stylesheet
A style sheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Most often associated with the visual style of web pages and user interfaces written in HTML and XHTML.
CTA: Call to Action
An instruction to the audience or customer designed to provoke an immediate response.
CX: Customer experience
Refers to the interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship.
DNS: Domain Name Server
A system that controls your domain name's website and e-mail settings.
ESP: Email service provider
A company that offers email marketing or bulk mail.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
The standard protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another host over the internet.
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language
The standard markup language used to create webpages.
IBL: Inbound Link
A hyperlink back to your site from another website.
IM: Instant Messaging
A form of real-time communication online using typed text.
IP Address: Internet Protocol Address
The numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
KPI: Key Performance Indicator
A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives.
LTV: Lifetime Value
The prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a particular customer.
OBL: Outbound Link
Links that take you away from your current website.
PR: PageRank
Google's ranking software that calculates the relevance of a webpage to the search keywords entered.
PV: Page View
The request to load a single HTML file (web page) of an Internet site.
QR Code: Quick Response Barcode
A machine-readable code used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.
ROI: Return on Investment
The benefit to the investor resulting from an investment of some resource.
RSS: Rich Site Summary
A summary of different websites compiled into one feed or channel.
SaaS: Software-as-a-Service
A software licensing and delivery model where software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.
SEM: Search engine marketing
Form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
The process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on search engine results.
SERP: Search engine results page
The listing or results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.
SMM: Social media marketing
A form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networks as a marketing tool.
SMO: Social media optimization
The use of social media communities to generate publicity in order to increase the awareness of a product, brand or event.
SOV: Share of voice
An online advertising ad revenue model that focuses on weight or percentage among other advertisers.
TOS: Terms of Service
Rules which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service.
UGC: User generated content
Content created by users of an online system or service.
UI: User interface
Everything designed into an information device with which a human may interact.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
An address to a resource on the Internet.
UV: Unique Visitor
The number of individuals requesting pages from the website during a given period of time.
WOM: Word of Mouth
Oral or written communication by a satisfied customer to prospective customers of a good or service.
WWW: World Wide Web
An information system on the Internet which allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext links.
Social Media Acronyms
DM: Direct Message
The private message function on Twitter.
FB: Facebook
The social network.
G+: Google+
Google's social network.
GA: Google Analytics
A web analytics service offered by Google.
IG: Instagram
A social network to share images, short videos and photos.
LI: LinkedIn
The largest professional social network.
RT: Retweet
A Twitter function where you re-share content posted by someone else.
SM: Social media
Refers to the industry.
YT: YouTube
A social network dedicated to videos.
Social Media Hashtags
#FF: Follow Friday (Instagram/Twitter)
Highlight people that you want your followers to follow.
#F4F: Follow for follow (Instagram/Twitter)
A way of communicating that you will follow back whoever follows you.
#FBF: Flashback Friday (All)
A look back at previous posts or memories on any given Friday.
#GOTD: Gram of the Day (Instagram)
Your favorite or most popular Instagram post for the day.
#Igers: Instagrammers (Instagram)
Reference to those who use Instagram.
#MCM: Man crush Monday (Instagram)
Post pictures of your favorite man crush on Mondays.
#MM: Music Monday (Instagram/Twitter)
Post pictures about your favorite music artists on Mondays.
#POTD: Photo of the day (Instagram)
Share your favorite or most popular photo for the day.
#OOTD: Outfit of the day (Instagram)
Share a picture of your favorite outfit.
#QOTD: Quote of the Day (Instagram)
Share your favorite quote.
#TBT: Throwback Thursday (All)
Flashback Friday just on Thursday
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